Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Hi everyone,

I decided to upgrade from a simple pre-paid phone to a Galaxy S3, and it's like stepping forward 200 years. I bought the book "My Samsumg Galaxy S3" and Galaxy S3 reference card, but so far, they don't address the most important questions I have. Is there a dedicated newbie sub-forum where I can ask the stupidest of questions:

How I get the phone/Android 4.3 to stop draining my battery at the rate of 10%/hr?

OS (14%) + Android Services (11%) = 25% of battery usage

AT&T smart wi-fi = 11% of battery usage

Disabled, but still draining the battery, and I'm scared to root the phone, given my inexperience)

auto-connect to AT&T hot spots disabled

mvideoplayer (13%); I backed out of the app., held down the home button to check if the app was running (it wasn't), but that doesn't seem to turn off this background process.

I've read some threads on the vast majority of S3 users having this battery drain problem and the announcement that Samsung yanked the 4.3 upgrade in December. But my phone came with this version of Android.

How do I keep my phone safe when I want to connect to a public wi-fi network (e.g., Starbucks)?

How do I use Google Calendar Sync to sync my Outlook and Google calendars? I've installed the app. on my PC, entered my google account login credentials, but the applet keeps telling that my username and password do not match. I've tried my home account credentials, too, and that doesn't work either.

How do I use my wonderful Apple earPods on my phone and get the inline controls to work? The plugs on the earbuds that came with the phone and the Airpods both have three rings on the plug, and they're both the same length. Google searches are tentative on this point (e.g., "should work, but YMMV)

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Originally Posted by jake3_14

Hi everyone,

I decided to upgrade from a simple pre-paid phone to a Galaxy S3, and it's like stepping forward 200 years. I bought the book "My Samsumg Galaxy S3" and Galaxy S3 reference card, but so far, they don't address the most important questions I have. Is there a dedicated newbie sub-forum where I can ask the stupidest of questions:

How I get the phone/Android 4.3 to stop draining my battery at the rate of 10%/hr?

OS (14%) + Android Services (11%) = 25% of battery usage

AT&T smart wi-fi = 11% of battery usage

Disabled, but still draining the battery, and I'm scared to root the phone, given my inexperience)

auto-connect to AT&T hot spots disabled

mvideoplayer (13%); I backed out of the app., held down the home button to check if the app was running (it wasn't), but that doesn't seem to turn off this background process.

I've read some threads on the vast majority of S3 users having this battery drain problem and the announcement that Samsung yanked the 4.3 upgrade in December. But my phone came with this version of Android.

How do I keep my phone safe when I want to connect to a public wi-fi network (e.g., Starbucks)?

How do I use Google Calendar Sync to sync my Outlook and Google calendars? I've installed the app. on my PC, entered my google account login credentials, but the applet keeps telling that my username and password do not match. I've tried my home account credentials, too, and that doesn't work either.

How do I use my wonderful Apple earPods on my phone and get the inline controls to work? The plugs on the earbuds that came with the phone and the Airpods both have three rings on the plug, and they're both the same length. Google searches are tentative on this point (e.g., "should work, but YMMV)

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Originally Posted by jake3_14

Hi everyone,

I decided to upgrade from a simple pre-paid phone to a Galaxy S3, and it's like stepping forward 200 years. I bought the book "My Samsumg Galaxy S3" and Galaxy S3 reference card, but so far, they don't address the most important questions I have. Is there a dedicated newbie sub-forum where I can ask the stupidest of questions:

How I get the phone/Android 4.3 to stop draining my battery at the rate of 10%/hr?

OS (14%) + Android Services (11%) = 25% of battery usage

AT&T smart wi-fi = 11% of battery usage

Disabled, but still draining the battery, and I'm scared to root the phone, given my inexperience)

auto-connect to AT&T hot spots disabled

mvideoplayer (13%); I backed out of the app., held down the home button to check if the app was running (it wasn't), but that doesn't seem to turn off this background process.

I've read some threads on the vast majority of S3 users having this battery drain problem and the announcement that Samsung yanked the 4.3 upgrade in December. But my phone came with this version of Android.

How do I keep my phone safe when I want to connect to a public wi-fi network (e.g., Starbucks)?

How do I use Google Calendar Sync to sync my Outlook and Google calendars? I've installed the app. on my PC, entered my google account login credentials, but the applet keeps telling that my username and password do not match. I've tried my home account credentials, too, and that doesn't work either.

How do I use my wonderful Apple earPods on my phone and get the inline controls to work? The plugs on the earbuds that came with the phone and the Airpods both have three rings on the plug, and they're both the same length. Google searches are tentative on this point (e.g., "should work, but YMMV)

The best way to stop battery drain is to close apps when you're not using them (double click the home button and your recent apps will appear. Swipe them to close them). You can also turn on battery saving options in the settings, turn down screen brightness, and turn off your mobile data when you're using wifi.

Not sure what you mean about keeping your phone safe. If you have a password/ pattern password, its hard to get in, and your data is encrypted anyway. Just keep your phone with you at all times, and you'll be fine.

Google Calendar on your phone only synchs with Google Calendar on the web, as they are the same product. If you want to synch Outlook with your phone, you'll have to download the outlook calendar from Google Play

Step 1. Take your Apple EarPods in your left hand
Step 2. Take your Galaxy S3 in your right hand
Step 3. Carefully insert the plug of your Apple Earpod into the headphone jack of your Galaxy S3
Step 4. See if it works

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Welcome to Android Central! Review this guide about battery saving tips: http://forums.androidcentral.com/amb...ving-tips.html. A cache partition wipe is also a good idea, as mentioned above by Golfdriver97. I don't think it matters that your phone came with 4.3, as opposed to being updated to it--it just seems that the 4.3 version that Samsung came out with was generally buggy for a fair number of people.

Originally Posted by jake3_14

How do I keep my phone safe when I want to connect to a public wi-fi network (e.g., Starbucks)?

How do I use my wonderful Apple earPods on my phone and get the inline controls to work?

I believe Apple uses a different standard for their earbud/microphone jacks, so those types of earphones or headphones will not work correctly with Android. I have read a number of issues here about Beats headphones as well, which are also designed for iOS. You'll need to look for earbud/microphone combinations that specifically describe compatibility with Android.

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

I do not have the stock apple ear buds with me now but I am using the s5i headphones which are apple specific headphones. The volume up and down buttons do not work. The play button works to play and pause. Double click the play button to go forward a track and triple click the play button to go backwards a track. This is on my note 3, but I think that the s3 would be similar.

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Thanks everybody for responding so kindly. I'll work through these suggestions in the next few days.

My phone is filled with Samsung bloatware, so double-pressing the home key results in S-voice coming up. Long-pressing the home key shows recent apps, which I can swipe away. My hunch is that I'd have to root my phone to remove the bloatware, but I'm too new to this arena to do that just yet.

It's too bad about the Earpod incompatibility. When I get some more cash, I'll check out better Android-specific earbuds.

Re: Smartphone and Android newbie introduction

Originally Posted by jake3_14

Thanks everybody for responding so kindly. I'll work through these suggestions in the next few days.

My phone is filled with Samsung bloatware, so double-pressing the home key results in S-voice coming up. Long-pressing the home key shows recent apps, which I can swipe away. My hunch is that I'd have to root my phone to remove the bloatware, but I'm too new to this arena to do that just yet.

It's too bad about the Earpod incompatibility. When I get some more cash, I'll check out better Android-specific earbuds.